2021.11.19 – Open Broadband News

The emerging PON technologies accelerating worldwide gigabit deployment

Earlier this year, the Broadband Forum hosted its insightful ‘Future of PON technology update’ vBASe webinar, focusing on the emerging technologies set to revolutionize the Passive Optical Network (PON) market, as well as the evolution and changing trends ahead for the worldwide deployment of gigabit technology.

Featuring notable industry leaders and contributors from Calix, DZS, Nokia, FutureWei and PICadvanced, the informative webinar brought together key research findings, use cases and a preview of the emerging technologies shaping the industry for years to come. As ongoing demand for full fiber access and connectivity inside the home continues to heighten, a seamless customer experience becomes more critical than ever.

The research presented in the webinar detailed a significant increase of rapidly growing PON deployments, most notably in the North American, EMEA and Asian markets, in addition to the already mature Chinese market. Numerous factors for this include the recent broadband plan introduced by the United States Government, 5G backhaul application requirements and cable technology rapidly driving fiber deployments.

Read the full blog from Broadband Forum Chief Marketing Officer of the Board of Directors, Marketing and BASe Chair Bernd Hesse here.

It’s a blast off! Calix GigaSpire BLAST Systems awarded BBF.398 Grade Wi-Fi Certifications

Calix has announced that its GigaSpire® BLAST systems have achieved BBF.398 Grade Wi-Fi industry benchmark recognition from the Broadband Forum. The BBF.398 Grade Wi-Fi industry benchmark is included in the Broadband Forum’s (BBF) Issue 2 TR-398 standard.

To ensure impartiality, the University of New Hampshire’s InterOperability Laboratory (IOL) conducted a rigorous and vendor impartial new performance test plan. The test measures Wi-Fi performance against a set of absolute requirements, which GigaSpire BLAST systems far exceeded.

“Calix is helping to accelerate innovation in the broadband industry by adopting industry standards and benchmarks like TR-398 and BBF.398,” said Lincoln Lavoie, Broadband Forum Technical Chair. “With new critical performance indicators (KPIs), the standard provides a sharper overview of overall device performance to help operators select the most appropriate business and home solutions to meet subscriber Wi-Fi connectivity demands.”

BBF Issue 2 TR-398 seamlessly validates the devices used in broadband deployments — and sets industry benchmarks to optimize their performance while addressing and identifying potential operational issues before they hit the market. It also updates multiple performance test cases.

Numbeo Ranks UK 39th in the World for Cost of Broadband Service

The latest data gathered by Numbeo, which is a crowd-sourced global database that examines the cost of living, has surveyed the cost of fixed broadband ISP provision across 109 countries and found that the United Kingdom ranked as the 39th most expensive country, with an average monthly cost of £30.87.

The most expensive country was found to be Ethiopia (£315.83), while the cheapest came out as the Ukraine (£4.49). However, when only looking across the whole of Europe, the UK ranks a more respectable 9th out of 40 countries – the most expensive being Iceland (£51.11) and the cheapest again being the Ukraine.

Crucially, this study only gathered data from fixed broadband packages that offered unlimited usage and download speeds of 60Mbps or more, which is likely to skew against countries that have older and slower networks (i.e. slower and cheaper plans weren’t factored).

Japan SVoD market revenue at $6.3bn in 2025

The Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) service revenue in Japan is expected to increase at a robust compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.7 per cent from $2.8 billion (€2.4bn) in 2020 to $6.3 billion in 2025, driven by increasing SVoD subscriptions and steady rise in average monthly revenue per SVoD household, according to GlobalData, the data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s Japan SVoD Forecast (Q2-2021) reveals that the SVoD subscriptions in the country will increase at a CAGR of 11.9 per cent during 2020-2025 benefiting from the continued rise in household penetration of fixed broadband services, particularly fiber optic (FTTH/B) services, and the subsequent consumer shift from traditional pay-TV services to various Over-The-Top (OTT) video platforms.

Hrushikesh Mahananda, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, commented: “Premium video services coupled with local content is key to the success of OTT video platforms over traditional broadcast services in the country. Amazon Prime Video platform will hold the largest share of Japan’s SVoD services market, by subscriptions through the 2020-2025 period. This growth can be attributed to the company’s wide, distinct pool of local and original content library, competitive pricing, e-commerce bundling and its partnership with telecom operators such as NTT Docomo and KDDI for local distribution offerings.”

Fiber surge to change dynamics of US broadband competition

On November 5, the US House of Representatives passed the landmark Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which carves out $65 billion for broadband-related initiatives and allocates $42.5 billion to the states for broadband infrastructure improvements, kicking off an unprecedented government-funded high-speed internet buildout. Under the legislation, expected to be signed shortly by President Biden, the funding can be used for any technology that meets the 100Mbit/s/20Mbit/s downstream/upstream speed thresholds.

But it is clear fiber is the preferred access technology. This fiber buildout will have a profound impact on the quality and availability of world-class broadband service for millions of Americans and small businesses living on the wrong side of the digital divide. Perhaps just as importantly, the fiber “surge” will change the dynamics of US broadband competition – with new market entrants joining forces with rural providers to disrupt the status quo.

Starting with the Connected America Fund (CAF) and the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), federal fiber spending already had a solid foundation of over $20 billion – some of it already put to work. However, with additional funding through the American Rescue Plan, the level of funding will potentially exceed the $70 billion estimated by the Fiber Broadband Association required to cover 90% of US customer locations.

Why the smart home is a smart play for operators

Covid-19 has had many side effects and one of them has been to rejuvenate the smart home. A market that was previously in decline is now revving up, and operators have a springboard into its heart. Analysts predict the value of the global smart home market will soar to between $138.9 billion (Markets and Markets 2021) and $622.59 billion (Fortune Business Insights 2021) by 2026 as connectivity is introduced across a wider range of home devices, from security cameras to utility meters, and thermostats.

The pandemic has already amplified demand for smart appliances for security, climate control, lighting and health alongside smart TVs. Connectivity is likely to become so pervasive to the extent of being embedded in every household device in the coming years (GFK 2021). The exponential growth in working from home and the urgent need for energy-saving and low carbon emission solutions are also driving demand.

Yet the weaknesses that stalled mass adoption remain. That’s because, while connected home devices are designed to make the consumer’s life easier, the market remains fragmented and complex. This is precisely where forward-thinking broadband operators can strike.